The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
1952 Garden City Books Edmund Dulac Dust Jacket Edition

Okay, this Garden City copy was a rollercoaster to catalog. I was going to combine this with the nearly identical 1952 Garden City edition (which has no dust jacket), as I thought they were the same edition and that my old copy was just missing the jacket. The insides seemed identical! Page counts aligned and such. However, on closer inspection, I did find three key differences between them and so I’m calling these two separate editions as a result.

The differences are:

• The copyright page in this 1952 Garden City edition just says “Printed in the United States”, whereas the other one also says the press used.
• The paper the artwork is printed on. The other one is shiny/slick whereas this one is not. It’s matte and not white-tinted. The stock feels completely different.
• The cover on this edition feels of higher quality/slightly different material. The colors are bolder and the texture feels different. This could be age/wear, but I’m calling it out.

Very interesting that two editions can be from the same year, look nearly identical, but have such differences! I wonder why…

This edition was donated by Bill Cloutier. Thank you!